Flåm Church () is a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of the

Church of Norway The Church of Norway (, , , ) is an Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. Christianity became the state religion of Norway around 1020, and was established a ...

in Aurland Municipality in

Vestland Vestland is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The county is located in Western Norway, and its administrative centre is Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County governor (Norway), County Governor is based in ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. It is located in the village of Flåm. It is the church for the Flåm

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

which is part of the Sogn prosti (

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

) in the

Diocese of Bjørgvin The Diocese of Bjørgvin () is one of the 11 dioceses that make up the Church of Norway. It includes all of the churches located in the county of Vestland in Western Norway, and those outside of Norway in the Seamen's Church. The cathedral cit ...

. The brown, wooden church was built in a

long church Church building in Norway began when Christianity in Norway, Christianity was established there around the year 1000. The first buildings may have been post churches erected in the 10th or 11th century, but the evidence is inconclusive. For inst ...

design in 1670 by master builder Magne Essen using designs by an unknown

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. The church seats about 160 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1340, but the church was not new that year. The first church in Flåm was likely a wooden stave church that was located on the same site as the present-day church. By 1661, the church was described as being in miserable condition. The parish hired master builder Magne Essen to tear down the old stave church and to build a new one on the same site, reusing as much of the old materials as possible. The builder, however, did not do that. He built a new church about to the north in Fretheim, and he did not tear down the old church. Unfortunately, the new church was significantly damaged in a wind storm the following year in 1669. So then, in 1670, both churches (the medieval stave church and the new church) were torn down and the materials from the two churches were reused in the building of a new church on the site of the old stave church. The new church was a wooden

with a rectangular

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

that measured about and a smaller, square

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

that measured about . There is a tower above the west end of the nave and then a small

church porch A church porch is a room-like structure at a church's main entrance. A porch protects from the weather to some extent. Some porches have an outer door, others a simple gate, and in some cases the outer opening is not closed in any way. The porch ...

on the west end of the building that measured about . In 1926, the tower and church porch were both rebuilt and the exterior siding was painted a dark brown.

Media gallery

Flåm kyrkje i Flåmsdalen.jpg, View of the church near the river in the Flåmsdalen valley Flåm kyrkje.jpg, Another exterior view Flåm Church.jpg, Exterior view, including an outside storage building Flaam kirke inne1.JPG, Interior view of the altar area Flaam kirke inne2.JPG, Close up of wall art

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flaam Church Aurland Churches in Vestland Long churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 17th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1670 13th-century establishments in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References